What are the best tools for virtual assistants? It’s a question I see a lot! I covered some of my favorite free tools in a previous post but in this one, I want to look at the tools that are worth investing your hard-earned money in.
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Laptop
If you’re working from home, your laptop is now the most important tool in your business. So make sure you have a good one!
When I decided I was truly going to start my own virtual assistant business, the first thing I did was upgrade to a new laptop. I went with an HP because I find it to be a reliable brand. I picked out the best I could afford at that time. And that is my advice to you, get the best you can afford. Don’t skimp on this essential business tool.
High-Speed Internet
The next thing my husband and I did was upgrade our Internet. As a virtual assistant I often work hourly, and I don’t want to charge more just because my internet is taking forever to load! That’s not fair to my clients or to me.
Tailwind
Tailwind* is an app that enables you to schedule out your Pinterest posts. You can also use it to schedule out posts for Instagram, but I prefer Planoly which I talk about below.
Pinterest is my main source of traffic and Tailwind* has been the tool that made that happen. Tailwind will create a posting schedule for you based on the best times for you to post. Then all you have to do is fill up your queue.
It’s super easy to pin your newest pin to your group boards too. Instead of scheduling a pin to one group board at a time you just create a board list and that pin will go out to every board on that list. Just be sure to set the duration so that the pins have some time between them and you don’t have the same pin going out every few minutes. I usually select every 14 hours for a new Pin and 24 hours or more for older evergreen Pins.
Tailwind Tribes is another awesome feature of Tailwind. It’s like group boards but better! Tribes is a fantastic way to get your content in front of more people and see an increase in traffic.
Use my referral link* and get a free month of Tailwind! I’ll also receive a credit to my account at no cost to you!
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Recur Post
Let me be honest here, I want to spend as little time on social media as possible. Recur Post allows me to do that.
With Recur Post you can create libraries that will recycle the posts you put into them. You also create a schedule so that your libraries will go out on certain days.
For example, I have libraries for blog posts, service promos, tips, quotes, and freebie offers. Each library then has its own schedule. Some post weekly, some daily.
This makes it perfect for Facebook! I know I’ll always have content going out and appear more active on my Facebook page than I really am! Recur Post will also post at the best time for engagement for me!
I also use Recur Post for Twitter. While Twitter has stopped allowing recycling of posts, Recur Post has a feature that allows you to add more that one version of your Tweet. So you can create 5 or 10 different Tweets for that blog post and Recur Post will schedule them out for you.
Planoly
Planoly is my go-to for scheduling content to my Instagram account.
I love that you can see your feed in Planoly. This is great because you can see how your content looks together and really create a cohesive feed. I also love that you can store your hashtags in sets for easy access and repeated use.
If you have an Instagram business account you can also post automatically which is so nice! If you post only once a day, the free plan will be plenty for you, but if you plan to post more the solo plan in a great option.
Convertkit
I’ve used many different autoresponders over the years both for clients and for myself and in my opinion, Convertkit* is one of the easiest to use. It’s true that they are a little more expensive than some of the others but the time I save setting each funnel up makes it worth it!
Offering freebies is my main way of growing my list so I don’t want that process to be hard. Convertkit* makes it very easy to send an opt-in freebie to a new subscriber and then add them to a sequence. You can attach your freebie to an incentive email right in Convertkit. No need to store it in a third party like Google Drive or Dropbox.
With Convertkit you can easily create forms and landing pages too further simplifying the process!
Interact
One of my favorite ways to grow my email list is by using quizzes. Interact* is my go-to platform for this. With their templates, they make creating a quiz super easy. So you don’t have to spend a ton of time creating a new opt-in for your list.
Plus quizzes are fun and they are a great way to get to know the pain points of your target audience! You can also customize the look of the quiz so that it fits your brand. You can read about how to set up Interact here.
Elementor
Elementor* is a drag and drop builder that gives you more control over your WordPress website’s design. You can use a free theme like Astra or Generate Press plus Elementor and create the website of your dreams. To me, Elementor is the easiest to use of the drag and drop builders.
The base plugin is free, but I highly recommend the Pro because you get so many great options with it. You’ll also have even more control over your website as you’ll be able to customize your blog posts, archives, headers, and footer.
By using the Pro version of Elementor* you can also eliminate a lot of other plugins. You will be able to create beautiful forms, testimonials, pop-ups, pricing tables for your virtual assistant services and more. In the past, I’ve used plugins to create all of these things now I just use Elementor.
Canva
While you can do a lot with the free version of Canva, I love having the Work version. With it, I’m able to create transparent PNGs and optimize the file size of images. Canva Work also allows you to add your own branding. You can set it to include your brand colors and fonts for easy access. You can also upload your own fonts to use instead of using Canva’s free fonts.
Google Drive
For 1.99 a month you can get 100GB of storage on Google Drive. Which is a great deal! I do quite a bit of video editing for clients and Google Drive is my main way of delivering the finished product to them, so needless to say the original free 15GB wasn’t nearly enough for me.
There’s also the added bonus that by storing client info here I can access it on my phone, iPad or laptop. So it helps make working from anywhere even easier!
Ivory Mix
Visuals are an important part of any website and blog. You have to have them! And Ivory Mix* has beautiful and feminine images perfect for the online business owner. Whether you’re a virtual assistant like me or a travel or fitness or Mommy blogger she will have something to suit your needs.
A subscription to Ivory Mix* was one of the first investments I made for my business because I wanted to make sure the visuals of my website were stellar and attracted my ideal client.
Podia
Do you plan to sell courses or digital products? Then Podia* is the way to go! It’s very user-friendly and easy to add your content to it. It’s also easy to create a beautiful sales page for your products and courses right in Podia.
You have a set fee per month. If you choose Mover, you can sell courses and digital products. With the Shaker plan, you can also offer memberships, affiliate marketing, and embed the checkout process right on your own website. They don’t take part of your earnings like some other platforms do.
Podia* integrates with several email service providers including Convertkit.
I work hard for my money and when I spend it on my business I want to make sure that what I’m purchasing is worth it! And each of these tools is worth the investment. They make running my virtual assistant business easier and save me time. Which means more time I can spend with clients and earn more money!
What are some of the paid tools you use for your business? I’d love to hear about them!
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